Alexandria, Virginia, is one of the oldest cities in the United States — founded in 1749, so earlier than the country itself — and touts the moniker "Old Town" for its primary neighborhood. But a new era is afoot for the small town down the road from Washington, D.C., where a historic hotel recently modernized and reopened.
The Hotel Heron opened in June 2024 in the heart of Alexandria, which sits 8 miles south of D.C. Independent hotel owner and operator Aparium Hotel Group acquired and renovated the property to bridge the gap between Alexandria's rich history and its modern community.
"This is a special neighborhood. I grew up here in the North Virginia area, and I always looked at Old Town as this really creative and artsy place, and it continues to be that even today," Harry Francis, Hotel Heron's director of lifestyle, said. "But I'd like to say that we're actually turning into Newtown, because lots of people have been moving into this area from D.C. and coming here, so it's really changed a lot. I tell people that we're becoming Newtown or the new Old Town, but it's beautiful to see."
Alexandria as a destination
With a population of just over 150,000 people, Alexandria attracts both leisure and business travelers looking for easy D.C. access without the hustle and bustle of the city, as well as those seeking out small town charm. Alexandria has made it to the top 10 of Condé Nast Traveler's annual "Best Small Cities in the U.S." list seven years running and has also scored other similar rankings and recognition.
Despite receiving this type of publicity, Matt Karow, general manager of the Hotel Heron, said the town is often overlooked as a small town travel destination due to its proximity to D.C. A recent revitalization — especially of the city's waterfront — has improved the area's attraction to visitors, but the area's development is strictly monitored by the city, he said.
"This is a city that has some pretty tight restrictions on development, and the city as a whole — from city council and chamber of commerce and all those different avenues — is not looking to overextend itself with all the commercial buildings and high rises," Karow said. "There are restrictions, from from the height of buildings to the lighting on buildings to the brickwork that's used. Everything has to fit into the mold of the community, and because of that, it's really hard to build, at least here in the Old Town corridor. A lot of the new development is on some of the outer parts of the city in different neighborhoods."
The submarket of Alexandria is home to 64 hotel properties supplying around 8,600 rooms, according to CoStar data, and no new hotel has opened in the past 12 months. With 134 rooms, the Hotel Heron is the largest of the seven listed independent hotels in the submarket.
"I think when [the city] saw the plans for what we wanted to do in bringing this great historic building back to life as a hotel, they were really excited knowing that there's not a lot of supply of hotels here," Karow said. "It's a pretty condensed market. ... There's not a lot of us, so we definitely fill a niche that is hard to do."
Returning to its hotel roots
Hotel Heron's historic building originally opened as the Hotel George Mason in 1926, serving the community until 1971. The property was then converted into an office building, housing the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children for years before the organization moved into a new building on the other side of town in 2010.
About 100 years after the George Mason opened, Chicago-based Aparium, which has 11 open hotels and its 12th in development, wanted to restore the property to its glory days as a hotel.
Restoring the building in accordance to the city's requirements was a challenge, especially amid the pandemic, so Heron's opening was pushed from 2022 to 2024. The exterior of the building at 699 Prince St. is original, but the interior — except for the original staircase — was heavily modernized.
"Everything in the building is brand new, from electrical to plumbing," Karow said. "It's essentially a brand new, state-of-the-art product across the board."
Adjacent to the original building was a surface parking lot that the office tenants used, but the Aparium team reimagined the space as a second building. Made to blend in with the Heron's original red brick, the new building houses a 3,000-square-foot ballroom and additional guest rooms.
Between the two buildings — the physical link between the new and the old — is an unassuming alley, but one that plays a key role in the Heron's programming, Francis said.
"When opening the hotel, the fact that we had this alley, I kind of saw this as the heart of our building in a way, because it's between these two structures," he said, explaining that the area hosted the hotel's grand opening, an Oktoberfest and several other events since opening.
A love letter to the community
The hotel's events programing plays a key role at the Hotel Heron — as well as Aparium's mission of "hotels done differently." Karow said one way the Heron delivers on this promise is to provide an experience, not just a stay. Guests don't tell their friends and family about how soft a pillow was on their trip, he said.
"What really sticks with people ... are those one-of-a-kind, unique experiences, and we want to do that, not just for our guests, which is really important, but for the community," he said.
And this is where Francis as director of lifestyle comes in, also falling right in line with the history of the George Mason Hotel.
"The George Mason Hotel was known as the hotel where all the parties and events were happening. So, everyone would leave D.C., and they'd come over here [to be] a little bit more under the radar," he said. "I feel like we're kind of bringing that spirit back to life with a lot of the events that we have hosted already."
In addition to the unique one-off events, such as a recent cocktail competition that brought in bartenders from across the city and benefited a local arts organization, the Heron hosts a monthly book club, weekly yoga sessions and a running club.
The hotel's various spaces — such as the lobby library, two bars or The Heritage Ballroom — play host to these events, but the Heron's food-and-beverage program also includes nods to both the hotel and Alexandria's history. For instance, Francis Hall, the hotel's cocktail bar, was named after a man who everyone in Alexandria in the 1700s seemed to know.
"As we were developing the property and looking through a lot of the archives of history, the name 'Frank Hall' kept coming up in the record books," Karow said, explaining that he was even referenced as the town therapist. "As we dug deeper into that, it turns out he was just the town barkeep at the time in the 1700s. Whether he's the first bartender of Alexandria, we don't know, but he's probably the most prominent from that era."
The first-floor restaurant, Kiln, also honors a local historic figure. Henry Piercy was Alexandria's first recorded potter, and his original kiln still exists down the road from the hotel. The open-kitchen concept focuses on regional dishes with ingredients produced by local vendors. Guests can dine at the chef's table to learn more about each dish.
The menu is "all food that's from this Chesapeake Bay, Shenandoah Valley, Potomac River — this whole region. If it's not found locally, it's just simply not going to be on our menu," Francis said.
The restaurant's decor, much like the rest of the hotel's, originates from local artisans from Virginia or neighboring states, and each element has a story.
The hotel's name also pays homage to the region, which was originally heavily populated by flocks of blue herons. For a while, the bird population diminished, but today there's more than 270 species of birds in the area, Karow said.
"Part of our concept of Hotel Heron as we are today is a nod to the past and what the Hotel George Mason was. But we even looked beyond that to what was here before anyone was here," he said. "And that heron bird, as beautiful as it is, as striking it is, we wanted to find a way to honor the true roots, not just of this building and the community, but the region."
Guests can enjoy a cocktail at the rooftop bar — named Good Fortune because seeing a heron is meant to be good luck — and watch as one swoops over the Potomac River.
In all these ways — from the events to locally sourced decor — the Hotel Heron exists as a bit of a love letter to the town of Alexandria, and Karow said the end goal is for each and every guest to feel like a member of the community.
"We want our guests to feel like locals and feel like they're a resident, and not just here on a one-night stay, but like they're living as a resident during their time with us," he said.